The management of the Lagos State University (LASU) has closed the state-owned university indefinitely following what it termed ‘violent protest by the students”.
This decision was contained in a bulletin, dated 23rd January, 2013, titled LASU management Closes University indefinitely.
The statement reads, “In the wake of the violent protest by some affected students of Lagos State University (LASU) over the closure of the university portal for registration of courses for rain semester 2012/2013 examination, the university management has decided to shut down the university indefinitely. Also, examinations have been put off till further notice.
With this decision, students are expected to vacate the university premises until further notice”.
It will be recalled that the students staged a peaceful protest on Wednesday, 22nd January over the closure of the portal but the protest became violent on Thursday.
This came a day after the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly; Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji lauded the students’ union for using the e-voting system to elect their officers and advised the Prof. Jega led Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to take a cue from the students and organize a credible e-voting elections in the country comes 2015.
The protest which continued on Thursday, was 1against the poor facilities in the school, despite what the students described as the huge school fees collected from the students.
Most of the students claimed to have paid about N250,000 as school fees. They kicked against the shut down of the school registration portal, which they said meant that some students, who could not complete their registration before the portal was shut down, would have an extra academic year.
Scores of students of Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, on Thursday staged a violent protest which disrupted the rain semester examinations scheduled to begin today.
The protesting students barricaded the Lagos-Badagry Expressway and the LASU-Iba Road, causing a gridlock, even as hundreds of policemen with armoured tank and 20 patrol vans were stationed at the institution’s main gate.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards of the demonstrating students read:”Reduce the school fees’’, “Open the registration portal’’, and “Obafunwa must go’’.
CSP Waheed Ayilara, who addressed the protesting students, urged them to sheathe their swords.
He said the police authorities would prevail on the authorities to re-open the LASU portal, adding that the period of registration would be extended.
“Negotiation is ongoing for the extension of the registration and I assure you that the portal will be re-opened. Just let us open the road and allow users to have access. Do not destroy any property because your children will suffer it in future, ’’ he said.
The aggrieved students, however, demanded that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oladapo Obafunwa, must address them and not a police officer.
“The VC must come down and address us himself and must agree to re-open the portal. The school fees are too high for us to pay before the deadline… the management did not close the school’s bank account while we were paying in.
“But now it has closed the portal after we have paid, thereby disallowing us to write our exams. A refusal to re-open the portal will cause us to miss the semester examinations which is an automatic carry over,” a student leader, who pleaded anonymity said.
At about 12.30 p.m., the students heightened the tempo of the protest which prompted the intervention of the police, which fired teargas and shot into the air to disperse the students in a bid to smuggle Obafunwa out of the institution.
There were reports that six students, who allegedly sustained injuries during the protest, were treated at the institution’s clinic.